Be Mine: The History of Sweetheart Conversation Hearts

Sweet St. Valentine's Day. A day to exchange chocolate and sweet nothings with your sweetheart — and, of course, to pluck through the conversation hearts for sayings like "Be Mine" and the more recent, "Tweet Me."

Outside of chocolate, the most popular candy to be had when cupid comes to town are the pastel-hued Sweetheart Conversation Hearts. In fact, there are more than 8 billion candy hearts — about 100,000 pounds — produced every day, though the 146-year-old candies are certainly a far cry from the kind that were around when Abraham Lincoln was in office.

The famous love notes actually made their debut as messages printed on colored paper and tucked into "cockles," or candies shaped like a scallop's shell. The brother of the founder of the New England Confectionary Company, or NECCO, Daniel Chase, was the one who discovered how to print the messages directly on the candy back in 1847. And those like "Kiss Me" and "I'm Yours" sweets have been around since Chase printed his first batch.

It wasn't until the 1990s that the hearts began to change their famous sweet nothings. The updated candies included messages like "Fax Me" and "Email Me." In 2009, the company even produced "Bite Me" and "Live 4 Ever" to tie into the Twilight phenomenon. And "Text Me" and "Tweet Me" came along with the arrival of social media and SMS. This year's sayings, like "XOXO" and "Wink Wink," were generated by a consumer contest.

The new and improved hearts don't quite leave the same dusty chalk on your hands since NECCO reformulated their original recipe. In addition to updating the texture to be more "candy-like", new flavors like green apple and blue raspberry have been added to the mix. (Though there is of course a Facebook Fan page for those change-adverse who want the old flavors to return.) If those colors don't look like they did in elementary school, it's because they have been amped up to be bolder.

Whether you prefer the classic version or the 21st Century one, there is no doubt, Valentine's Day would not be the same without these iconic candies.

Have you tried the new flavors? Which do you prefer, the originals or the new-and-improved candies?